Field of the Invention
The present invention generally pertains to tracking the geographic location of vehicles in relation to other vehicles. More specifically, the present invention pertains to utilizing location based technologies to identify driver abnormalities in an ad hoc traffic flow.
Description of the Related Art
Positioning systems such as Global Positioning System (GPS) have many applications. One such application is determining the position of a vehicle. Some vehicles have GPS capabilities to assist the driver in making a determination as to their present location or how to arrive at a particular destination. Many drivers, too, may utilize a mobile device or smartphone with GPS capabilities to offer similar functionality.
Businesses that require use of one or more vehicles (“fleets”) often have rules and preferences regarding how and where vehicles may be driven. Some fleet vehicles may be equipped with GPS components to allow for GPS tracking capability. But even with such capabilities, a fleet having only GPS monitoring will do nothing more but indicate to a fleet manager where a particular vehicle is at any given time. It is difficult to determine whether a vehicle operator is operating a vehicle or otherwise driving in a safe manner based solely on GPS generated information.
There is a need in the art for an improved methodology for monitoring the driving habits of the operators of fleet managed vehicles. There is a further need to determine whether these driving habit constitute safe operation thereby alleviating a fleet from potential liability or other costs associated with unsafe driving